Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-09-14
WESTERN HORSEMEN.
They Are Not Stylish, But Can Jseat the
World Riding a Horse.


die horse loses much of his poetry.
His tail is no longer a paint brush, his
coat is no longer velvet, his veins no
longer stand out with heated blue
grass blood; he no longer champs and
curvets and dances and fumes. He
simply gets up and gets, and the man
on top of him howls and lashes him.
There is no poetry in the cowboys
horse, but there is a heap of Uis to1ertig,
especially when his rider is after the
feetest steer in the herd or the widest
band of calves
Rotten row isn't anywhere then, but
the festive cowboy is glued to his
horse, and no power but equine apo
plexy OF gopher hole could dislodge
him. These fellows are not graceful;
any Chicago riding master would
charge them one hundred dollars a les
son to teach them to ride in boulevard
shape, but they are horsemen. They
can ride on the neck, or clinging to
the cinch, or with only foot in the
stirrup; they can mount and dismount
on a full run; they can pick up silver
dollars from the ground, they can turn
somersaults over the horses rump,
grab his tail, and spring again to the
saddle at full speed. They are bar
barrie centaurs, but there is no grace
or refinement in their ymovements-it
is not equestrianism.
The best type of American horse
manship obtains in the American
cavalryman. The soldier, with his ac-
coutrements his tapederos, as the
Spanish call his stirrup guides, his
blanket roll, his sabertache, his saddle
pockets and his huge pommel in front
to rest his hands
The horse is clean, gaunt creature,
strong, sinewy and utterly devoid of
monkey business He is trained to
walk. He never gallops except under
spur, but he will walk three miles an
hour on amarch, and save himself and
his rider. The lamented General
Candy, who was killed in the Modoc
war some years ago, once said: Il
have paid out of my own pocket 81, 200
for a mare that would walk four miles
an hour. To get such beast it must
be nervous and quick-footed and en-
tirely tractable, and then you have to
pay for it. -
The cavalry horse has two or three
trainings, but the chief of them is to
walk fast, and any man who knows
about horses will say that this is the
hardest thing to teach. The average
horse is one thing or the other-he is
in full swing or he is lazy as snail.
To get the desired point between those
two is the object of all men who buy
horses for the army, and of the cavalry
men who have to handle them. Two
years ago a party of men stood on the
bank of the Cimmaron river in the
Indian Territory. The waters were
raging. All the army teamsters said
the stream was ''swimming'' and inn
passible. 1t was fifteen hundred yards
across. The waters were boiling. No
body dared venture. All at once on
the opposite bank was seen single
cavalryman.
He rode great brown horse and
wore a waterproof suit, and on his
back was strapped an oil-skin bag He
had his carbine and belt of cartridges,
and as the gallant brute he rode
plunged into the stream he lifted and
waved it aloft. Then as the horse lost
his footing he caught the carbine on
the saddle, slid back, grabbed the
horses tail and the brave beast
breasted the seething current.
He'll make itr' yelled big team
ster. That's Jack Comfort, of the
Fifth Cavalry! He's Major Summers
courier!''
Fifty people watched. The great
horse caught his footing. An instant
for breathing SPELL Private Comfort
climbed up slowly in the water, patted
the neck of his animal, got his seat
and waded out
what news, Jack?'
Cant stop; dispatches from Sheri-
DAMP He waved his hand, and with
motion of his heel the strong, wet
horse lunged into a gallop through the
sand, and in a second was lost in the
willows and sage brush. The Amer
lean cavalry rider is the hardest type
of his kind; the beast that bears him is
not equaled on any soil. Chicago
Tribune.